Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

A motorist pulled up along side me as I was slowly running down a Negaunee street sometime in mid-May 1997, rolled down his window and hollered, “This has been the worst May that I can remember and I’ve lived here all my seventy years.”  I could not disagree with him; if one were an aficionado of mild spring weather, May 1997 was a trying time indeed.  After the snowiest winter recorded at the time, a warm spell in early April quickly whittled down the huge banks left by a record March snowstorm.  Then the typical slow struggle to spring settled in; a generally disagreeable weather pattern dominated the rest of the month into early May, punctuated by a nice early spring day here and there.  Then from May 9-16 it snowed six out of eight days in most sections of the western and central Upper Peninsula. 

The big snow of this period hit the far west on the 12^th.  Ironwood collected a foot of snow, while Ontonagon measured 13.6 inches.  Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, straddling Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, accumulated even more: 16 inches at the park office and workers who visited Summit Peak (1,950 feet) at the conclusion of the storm measured an astounding 36 inches!  While the snow was wet and heavy at the office, typical of a late season fall, the summit snowfall was said to be as fluffy and dry as if it had fallen in January. 

The last snow in the series began quickly during the afternoon of the 16^th.  A strong, clipper-like low-pressure system raced in from the northwest.  At 4:00 eastern daylight time, moderate snow was reported at both the Houghton County and Marquette County airports.  A quick 3.2 inches fell at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Negaunee Township, causing slippery roads, which resulted in a number of accidents.  The snow disappeared just as quickly the next morning. 

Warmer weather finally visited Upper Michigan the last half of May 1997.  More moderate weather the last two weeks raised the average temperature at month’s end to 44.8 degrees, still a healthy 5.4 degrees below the long-term average.  Much of the central and eastern U.S. was chilly during May 1997 (Image 1 above).  The NWS recorded its first official 70 degree day on May 23, 1997, one of the latest on record.  The latest 70-degree high in Marquette occurred on June 2, 1907 after the coldest May on record. 

This year, it hit 70 in mid-March.  In fact, the temperature hit 80 or above at a number of U.P. sites during that record-shattering March heat wave.  March 2012 was the warmest on record for most of the north-central United States.  Only the West Coast and southwest states had near average temperatures during the month (Image 2 above).